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Juan J. Barriuso (l) of the Agrifood Research Centre of Aragon (CITA), secretary of the organising com- mittee and Mattia Bencivenga of the University of Perugia.
All particpants gathered in the plantation of Jaime Royo Pascual.
During the visit to research station Manjares de la Tierra, black truffl es are being cleaned.
the fact that half of the plantations fail to produce. Ac- cording to Pierre Sourzat (Station d’expérimentation sur la truffe) the truffle grower’s intuition is also crucial to success. Each truffle grower must develop his or her own style and signature, adapted to suit local conditi- ons.
Truffl e growing worldwide Truffle growing is no longer limited to the Mediter- ranean countries. In Sweden, a truffière growing black truffles inoculated on hazel groves (Coryllus avelana) was started on the island of Gotland in 2002. In 2011 they harvested the first black truffles! South Africa and Chile started growing truffles in 2008. Australia produces 4500 kg a year and production in 2017 is predicted to reach even as much as 10 tons. However, in the past year almost 50 per cent of the truffles Down Under were lost to truffle rot, explained Harry Eslick of Murdoch University. Irrigation caused the root zone to grow too close to the surface, which meant that the truf- fles also developed at too shallow a depth leaving them susceptible to rotting. In the south west of the USA large numbers of truffles are found in plantations of pecan nut trees. This tasty truffle - the Tuber lyonii or ‘Pecan truffle’ promises to conquer a position as a top, regional gastronomic product. However, when a price comparison is run, it is clear that these American truffles lag far behind their European counterparts in the appreciation stakes (the prices are subject to huge fluctuations!): White truffles cost around 5900 dollars per pound, black Périgord truffles achieve 575 dollars at the farmers’ market and
2000 dollars at a retail trader’s. Black summer truffle (Tuber aestivum) can fetch 670 dollars per pound, while pecan truffles reach prices of ‘just’ 100-200 dollars. In Tunisia research is being done into the com- mercial possibilities of terfez. These ‘desert truffles’ occur naturally in Mediterranean countries. They form a valuable source of protein and are traditionally eaten as a vegetable. Growing terfez is also a very important commercial activity to aid rural development and to help combat dehydration and desert formation. The congress also revealed some examples of remarkable finds of truffles that have occurred in the past year. These finds refute many established ideas about the distribution and emergence of truffles. Some example; Research performed by Simon Egli (Swiss Fe- deral Research Institute) shows that the summer truffle (Tuber aestivum) is not only found in the summer but all year round, expect for a brief period in spring. Egli also mentioned the find of a white truffle in Switzerland. This is the first specimen ofTuber magnatum to be found north of the Alps! In England a summer truffle was even found with an amazing aroma in early March of this year. Alexander Urban (University of Vienna) reported on the unique find of a black truffle in Austria.
Company visits After two days packed with presentations it was time to see things in practice and experience the sur- roundings. The first plantation we visited covered 30 hectares and was 12 years old. This planation of holm oaks (Quercus ilex) yielded two kg of truffles per hec- tare last year. Why so few? Last year was extremely dry
Demonstration of truffl e hunting in the truffi ère of 50 hectares with holm oaks (Quercus ilex).
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